How the Soviets helped America’s craft beer revolution

A Russian pagan republic championed hops before microbreweries ran mainstream now it wants to be back on the global beer map, The Calvert Journal reports

Cheboksary is merely a night train ride away from Russias capital but it could be on another planet. By 10 am the temperature is already approaching the high twenties, its trees are decorated with ribbons and animal bones, and store windows are painted with intricate geometric designs.

The city is the capital of the Chuvashia Republic, a place that has for centuries defied Russian Christian hegemony and where locals still conduct colorful pagan rites and follow a pantheon of divinities.

The republic is just one of the worlds oldest beer-producing regions, with a tradition of harvesting hops and drinking beer as part of their religious worship.

Now, in a bid to return to its former glory as a Soviet-era hop superpower, local scientists and brewers are hoping that the furor for microbreweries springing up from Moscow and St Petersburg could once again bring investment to Chuvashs farms.

Thanks to its historic love of beer and its unique microclimate steep terrains and hot summers Chuvashia was the obvious location to produce beer to slake the thirst of the industrial workers across the USSR, rapidly transforming the Republic into a hop-growing superpower.

By the late 1980 s, local sovkhozes ( country farms) were producing 95% of all hops for the Soviet Unions beer. Known locally as Chuvashias green gold, hops were so ubiquitous they appeared in everything from ice-cream to shampoo.

Hop-farming promptly became a prestigious scientific discipline which demanded its own bureaucratic hierarchy. The first Soviet hop research institute was established just outside Cheboksary.

One of the regions signature products the flavoursome Serebryanka subsequently inspired scientists at the University of Oregon to breed Cascade, a citrus-flavoured hop which has now become popular with craft brewers.

The semi-wild breed with clues of blackcurrant hasnt been efficient to grow, Nikonov says, pointing a a row of indiscreet pale-looking stems of a plant that kicked off the craft beer revolution.

As the team at canadian institutes works to preserve the history of the glory days, there are signs around the region that the locals have never forgotten their green gold.

Many are skilled home-brewers and brew is often presented as a gift at bridals and important occasions including Seren, a pagan vacation on which evil spirits are expelled with barrels of alcohol and wild dancing.